Intel Corp, the world's biggest maker of semiconductors, said on
Monday it is leading a $50 million investment round in a new start-up
and spinning off solar technology that it had developed.

Intel said the solar assets it is divesting will be part of an
independent company SpectraWatt Inc, and it is joined in the funding by
Cogentrix Energy LLC, a unit of Goldman Sachs Group Inc, PCG Clean
Energy and Technology Fund, and Solon AG. It did not detail its
investment.

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SpectraWatt will make photovoltaic cells and sell them to solar
module makers, Intel said. In addition, the start-up will focus on
improving current solar cell manufacturing to cut the cost of
photovoltaic energy generation.

SpectraWatt aims to break ground on its manufacturing and advanced
technology development plant in Oregon in the second half of 2008, with
first shipments of its products expected by the middle of 2009.

Solar cells are used in converting sunlight to electricity, and the
end-market for solar technology in 2007 was about $30 billion, up 50
percent from 2006, according to data from market research firm Photon
Consulting.

Intel said it expects solar industry growth of 30 percent to 40
percent to continue in coming years as the economics of solar, which is
still about twice that of currently delivered retail electricity on a
per-kilowatt basis, starts to approach that of traditional
electricity-generation technologies.

Intel's funding is coming from Intel Capital, Intel's venture
capital arm, which has a long history of funding start-ups to spur the
adoption of technology and help fuel demand for its products.
(Reporting by Duncan Martell; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)